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Physical Description

Dorian is on the short side, and even as an adult will only be around 5’6, and has a skinny build. He can be self-conscious about his appearance, something that will only increase as he becomes a teenager. He has medium tone skin, being of mixed white and Chinese heritage, and the dark hair and eyes that naturally go with the latter, although people don’t always immediately realise that he’s mixed race. His hair is neither extremely close cropped nor long enough to be described as long, and he usually has it styled with a fringe. He is generally neat in his appearance.

Background

Dorian is from a Pureblood family who live in Québec, Canada. On a global scale, this puts them as well-off and conservative, although within the scale of Pureblood society they are moderately wealthy. They maintain traditional Pureblood politics and beliefs, although his parents don’t exactly fit the perfect society mold.

Dorian’s mother is Chinese and his father is Québecois. They were a love match, and met with some disapproval from both Chinese and Western society, with certain factions of each pushing the belief that one should stick to marrying within one’s own race. In Canada, their Pureblood social circle is very white, and this has led to various uncomfortable situations for Dorian growing up... Everything from people freely expressing their views about 'damn immigrants' in front of him, not realising he is mixed race, to the casual racism of telling him he 'could totally pass for white' as if it's a compliment, to more overt racism. He realised early on in life that the rules of society are different depending on who you ask, or who anyone wants to include or exclude based on their own personal likes and dislikes, and that it would be impossible to please everyone. He doesn't see the point in bending over backwards trying to conform to the standards of people who feel he is beneath them, and bases how he acts firstly on what he thinks is right or wrong, or what those close to him value - so far, there hasn't been much conflict between these two ideals.

When his parents met, their common language when was English, and subsequently Dorian and his siblings grew up trilingual, speaking French with their father, Mandarin with their mother, and with everyone using English in group situations. After some time in French society, Dorian’s mother has made good progress with the language, and they sometimes use French as well. At first, they were home schooled in French, with Chinese language classes, but after deciding that he would send one of the children to Sonora, their father switched them to doing their schooling partly in English.

Family & Friends

Dorian has two siblings, Mattieu and Émilie. Matthieu is older than Dorian by two years, and the two of them have a difficult relationship, to put it mildly. Matthieu takes Pureblood society very seriously, and wants to raise their family's social status. He is also something of a jock, playing Beater for his house team. Dorian has always been on the quieter side, preferring gentle pursuits such as reading and music. The two of them were never naturally inclined to get on, and Matthieu is further aggravated by Dorian's lacklustre attitude towards society. When Dorian was born, Matthieu was very excited to get a little brother - someone he could play with. Though for the first two years of his life, Dorian was incredibly boring, because all babies are. Eighteen months after Dorian was born, their sister Émilie arrived. Far from finding Émilie as boring as Matthieu had found him, Dorian doted on his sister, enjoying taking care of her, thus depriving Matthieu both of a playmate and stealing his role as the Important Big Brother. This initial spark of jealousy has only grown and festered over time, evolving into a vicious cycle throughout their childhoods. Their personalities were naturally different - Matthieu being a rough and tumble kind of boy, whilst Dorian was a quiet and sensitive one. Not enjoying Matthieu's style of play drove Dorian closer to his sister, thus exacerbating Matthieu's jealousy, which has evolved into lashing out at Dorian, and the distance between them growing. The situation has escalated into full on bullying, both verbal and physical, of Dorian by Matthieu. His parents are only half aware of the situation. The boys have never got along, and so the air of hostility between them isn't exactly new. Dorian also tries to hide the full extent of the problem from them, out of the belief that there isn't much they can do, and the fear that Matthieu will beat him up even worse for telling. For their part, Dorian's parents are perhaps rather good at denial, and would like to pretend that their children are All Perfectly Normal, and that Everything Is Fine. Happily, Matthieu attends L'Institut Québecois, and so he and Dorian only see each other for a handful of weeks each year.

Émilie is a delightful and affectionate girl, who adores Dorian. He has always looked after her, and her first word was 'Dodo' (his family nickname), preceding even 'Mama' ('Matthieu' came somewhat further down the list, ranking somewhere below the Chinese word for 'icecream'). She is something of a mix between her siblings - she has Matthieu's short temper but Dorian's sweetness. She can be impetuous and impatient, can get worked up into a temper or tears over things, but is just as quick to forgive, and will dole out hugs and kisses in spadefuls. She loves going to see musicals, and always has a theatre trip for her birthday, and Dorian is her enthusiastic companion in recreating all the songs and dances when they get home. Sadly, she attends L'Institut Québecois, and so she and Dorian only see each other for a handful of weeks each year.

Highlights from Sonora

For Dorian, life at Sonora pretty much revolves around Jehan Callahan. When Dorian stepped off the wagon on his first day, he was very nervous, convinced from his brother's teasing that he would never meet anyone who liked him, and that he was in for seven years of bullying and misery. The first person he met was Jehan - a sweet, sensitive boy who shared his love of poetry. The two of them clicked from the moment they met, and Jehan has always been his best and closest friend. They have their own version of the MARS music room, which makes itself into a comfortable living room with a record player for them, where they listen to music and read together, sharing all their thoughts with each other. Jehan's feelings for Dorian extend beyond friendship but, blinkered by his upbringing, Dorian has yet to realise this.

During his first year, Dorian also met Tatiana Vorontsova, known to him as Tatya (or, when feeling extra affectionate, Tanushka). Tatya is also a non-native English speaker, and the two bonded over this. They agreed to try to learn each other's languages, for fun, and to comfort each other by being able to hear a little of something familiar at school. As Jehan's grandmother is French, he was interested too, as was Dorian's roommate, Vlad, who has Russian ancestry. The four of them formed a group called 'The Club of Tongues' and study French, Russian and a little Chinese together. Tatya's temperament is quite similar to Émilie's, and Dorian tends to think of her like a sister.

He gets on well with his roommate Vlad, and his fellow Teppenpaw, Ruby Brockert. He is generally friendly to most people, although he much quieter and more reserved with people he doesn't know, still afraid that they will react more like his brother. Jehan's older brother is the same age as Matthieu, and Dorian is especially nervous of him, even though he knows they're nothing alike - it matters to him that his friend's brother thinks well of him and, in the absence of knowing him properly, he does tend to project some of what he knows and feels about older brothers onto Victor.
Dorian mostly spends his time hanging out with Jehan in MARS or studying languages with his friends, although he does volunteer as a library monitor.

During his second year, there was an illness that caused bursts of accidental magic. Dorian made Jehan's sweater appear out of nowhere when he was feeling cold and lonely, and wrote notes in angry French to Professor Wright, who had accused Tatya of cheating on a test.